46 kommentarer

I would hardly compare a voice critical of its governments actions to a person that promotes genocide. That is a ludicrous comparison that I hope you did not mean sincerely. It is also very important to differ between anti-Israelism and anti-semitism as they are hardly the same. That would be the difference between your examples and the mentioned lecturers and Mr. Digrenes.

As Carl-Erik Kopseng, I strongly disdain the personal attacks that have been made in previous posts and implore people to refrain from further doing so.

@Magnus Boyd
I also used to believe that anti-Israelism and anti-semitism were different. In most cases I now believe they are not. Given that Norway’s record in aiding Nazis to exterminate Jews was rather worse than Fascist Italy’s I think Norwegians’ adoption of a high moral tone is not wholly appropriate.

Some of the criticism of my post is reasonable and, though I disagree, is clearly thoughtful and not motivated by hate. But, as to the assertion, at least implicit, what we (the organized Jewish community) is trying – or even has the power – to SILENCE critics, I’m sad that such erudite people can buy into such a facile and historically lethal narrative of Jewish control. The Jewish community doesn’t have the power to SILENCE anyone. Let me remind you that Jews make up 13 million people worldwide…that’s 2/10 of 1% of the entire world population. Out of 192 nations in the world, Jews have one country. Please tell me how we could possibly have the power to SILENCE anyone! Jews don’t SILENCE anyone…we don’t threaten violence and don’t have a Jewish version of a Fatwah. You can say anything you like, and the only consequences you suffer is being on the receiving end of a passionately worded blog post or letter from folks like me.

As to the bizarre charge that Israel has STARTED 2 wars. I mean, really, that’s just bizarre. If Norway was surrounded by Hezbollah and Hamas (rather than Sweden and Finland!), and was on the receiving end of thousands of missiles aimed at your civilian population, could you honestly say that Norway wouldn’t retaliate?!

Israel is a liberal and democratic state, one worth defending, and one which »progressives» in Norway should feel proud in defending – passionately, and without apologies.

In my academic career I had never heard about any Norwegian university, until a variety of newspaper articles and e-mails drew my attention to the anti-Israel hate seminars at NTNU and the fact that it was the first time ever in a democratic country that such a series was sponsored by a university rector. I have since looked in some detail into the attitude of Norwegian governments towards Israel and the Jews. It seems to me that it is much more important for NTNU’s students that the rector sponsors a seminar on this subject. It could include many topics, such as Norway’s long histroy of anti-Semitism, the scandalous restitution process after the Second World War and the systematic obstruction by many authorities during the renewed restitution process in the 1990s. Other subjects could be Norway’s own ethics and those it demands from Israel, double standards in behaviour and ethics towards Israel and Arab counrties, media bias, internationally pioneering anti-Semitic acts in Norway, and so on.

Both Vårt Land and Ny Tid have recently published articles on the fact that one of the speakers, Professor Stephen Walt, has been endorsed by Osama Bin Laden. Both these are however miniscule publications.

While it cannot be held against an author that one of his readers happens to be a warlord, it can be held against the free press of Norway – including the university newspaper Universitetsavia – when it fails to report on what grounds the NTNU seminars are being criticized.

In this case the seminars are being critisized for being insufficiently balanced. The lacking press coverage of the «Bin Laden book club» accentuates this fact.

It is not the academic credentials of the speakers which are in question here, but the composition of the seminars as a whole.